ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA - Cuba is protesting UNESCO's decision to award jailed independent reporter Raul Rivero its press freedom prize.

Rivero was among 75 Cuban activists sentenced to long prison terms in a crackdown on the opposition a year ago. He was given 20 years on charges of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's socialist system - allegations he and Washington deny.

"It is deplorable and embarrassing that the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award has been used for ends separate from UNESCO's fundamental ideals," read a communique posted this week on Cuba's Foreign Ministry web site. The statement was dated Monday.

The crackdown was condemned by governments and rights groups around the globe. All 75 were convicted and sentenced to terms ranging from six to 28 years.

Rivero is among very few independent reporters in Cuba with past professional training and experience. He has published numerous volumes of poetry and news reportage, and is considered by some to be one of the island's best poets.

"The Prize is a tribute to Raul Rivero's brave and long-standing commitment to independent reporting, the hallmark of professional journalism," Koichiro Matsuura, director of the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said in announcing the award last month.

"I am deeply concerned about the conditions in which Mr. Rivero, who is reported to be ill, is being held and I call on the authorities to free Mr. Rivero and the other journalists," the UNESCO head added. UNESCO officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Rivero's wife, Blanca Reyes, was enraged by the government's statement about her husband.

"What is deplorable and embarrassing," Reyes said Wednesday, "is that they talk that way about a man who is a poet, who only writes what he thinks.

"He is an honest and decent man," she said.